Richard Burton Biography

original name Richard Walter Jenkins, Jr.

(1925 - 1984)

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Related Works

  • Films
  • 1949 The Last Days of Dolwyn
  • 1952 My Cousin Rachel
  • 1953 The Desert Rats
  • 1953 The Robe
  • 1955 The Prince of Players
  • 1955 The Rains of Ranchipur
  • 1956 Alexander the Great
  • 1957 Sea Wife
  • 1957 Bitter Victory
  • 1959 Look Back in Anger
  • 1960 The Bramble Bush
  • 1960 Ice Palace
  • 1962 Cleopatra
  • 1963 The VIP's
  • 1964 Becket
  • 1964 Night of the Iguana
  • 1965 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  • 1965 The Sandpiper
  • 1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  • 1967 The Taming of the Shrew
  • 1967 The Comedians
  • 1967 Dr Faustus
  • 1968 Boom!
  • 1968 Candy
  • 1969 Where Eagles Dare
  • 1969 Staircase
  • 1969 Anne of the Thousand Days
  • 1971 Villain
  • 1971 Raid on Rommel
  • 1971 Under Milk Wood
  • 1972 Hammersmith is Out
  • 1972 The Assassination of Trotsky
  • 1972 Bluebeard
  • 1973 Massacre in Rome
  • 1977 Exorcist II: The Heretic
  • 1977 Equus
  • 1978 The Wild Geese
  • 1978 The Medusa Touch
  • 1978 Absolution
  • 1984 Nineteen Eighty Four
» More

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(born Nov. 10, 1925, Pontrhydyfen, Wales—died Aug. 5, 1984, Geneva, Switz.) British stage and motion-picture actor noted for his portrayals of highly intelligent and articulate men who are world-weary, cynical, or self-destructive.

He was the 12th of 13 children born to a Welsh coal miner. He studied acting under Philip Burton, a schoolteacher who became his mentor and helped him obtain a scholarship to the University of Oxford. In gratitude to his benefactor, he assumed the professional name Burton. His first stage appearance was in 1943, but subsequent service as a Royal Air Force navigator delayed his career. In 1948 he resumed his stage performances and had his first role in a motion picture, The Last Days of Dolwyn. He scored his first real stage triumph in 1949 in Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning.Burton's first Hollywood film role was in My Cousin Rachel (1952). Throughout the remainder of the 1950s he specialized in historical roles in motion pictures, including the leading role in the first wide-screen CinemaScope production, The Robe (1953). Burton rose to superstar status during the filming of Cleopatra (1963), when he and his American co-star Elizabeth Taylor became lovers. Both of his highly publicized marriages to Taylor (1964–74, 1975–76) ended in divorce. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967) are the best of the 11 films the couple made together. Burton's other important films include Becket and The Night of the Iguana (both 1964), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), The Comedians (1967), and Equus (1977).Burton meanwhile continued to receive critical acclaim for his theatre performances. He acted in Shakespearean productions at London's Old Vic in 1953–56, and he gave a memorable performance of Hamlet in John Gielgud's long-running Broadway production of that play in 1964. Burton also played on Broadway in Jean Anouilh's Time Remembered (1957) and portrayed King Arthur in the Broadway musical Camelot in 1960 and 1980.


Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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